What is Content Marketing Strategy?

We all know or have heard in social media that content is king. This was to my knowledge challenged recently asking if it is still true. Well, in my opinion, it still is. Besides content in your blog, or on your website, we now are finding how to effectively use content as a marketing strategy as another form of pr marketing strategies.

Simply put, a content marketing strategy actually refers to the power of the content and Social engineering conceptunderstanding how you create the appropriate content strategy. Confused yet?  Ok, let me give an example.  In social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest you probably tell people, followers and sometimes even customers about your products or services. Take this PR one step further by now creating a “two-way” conversation.  Make your pr content be shareable, work to make it trigger a discussion to encourage your social network to continue the conversation within their social circle.

In order to be effective with a content strategy you should have a clear understanding of your objective before you begin making any statements, or starting up a conversation. This type of content is designed to build viable web content that will engage your target customers as well as search engines.  This can also help increase your visibility with the search engine rankings.

When you create conversations (content) it will usually increase your online business and generate maximum web visibility to build a strong reputation. Therefore be sure to always provide enough quality content for customers to talk about with others. This is an effective way to expand your pr marketing strategy.

Aron Agius a well-known person in the field who has helped online marketing campaigns become successful made this statement:

“The importance of content marketing strategy cannot be underestimated. Content is the foundation of any successful online marketing campaign. A great strategy is needed in order to fuel social media activity, to create high converting landing pages for pay per click marketing, and to power increases in search engine rankings for target keywords.” He continued saying, “businesses of all sizes can benefit from implementing a solid content marketing strategy. Small businesses have just as much opportunity as big business to reach an increased audience trough content marketing – the key element that needs to be monitored is consistency. Consistent content creation and marketing is what sets apart businesses from the many similar businesses jumping on the content marketing bandwagon.”

I do not think I could have said it any better.

And if you are not sure how to implement this strategy, Aron has these 5 steps that you can follow:

1) Focus your plan around being able to consistently create high quality content.

2) Ensure your content strategy covers a wide range of different content types. Text blog posts, advanced guides, info-graphics, images, video — the more types of media you create the greater the potentially reach and the number of different distribution channels you can use to get eyeballs on your content.

3) If need be outsource your content creation, but only do so once you have developed strict guidelines around tone, style, voice, and the core messages that you want your content to speak towards.

4) Identify the problems in your industry, the questions people are asking and focus on being a resource that creates content that solves problems and puts you in a position of authority within your industry.

5) Don’t forget the marketing in content marketing. This is the most important point. People are now creating endless amounts of content and thinking they are doing content marketing. You should be spending as much time in marketing the content as you are creating the content on the first place.

Now go and start some conversations to engage your customers.

Google accepts defeat to catch the “WAVE”.

Update news. I’ll keep this short, as there isn’t much to say after I make my statement. wave, email

It was just over a year ago when I wrote about Google’s introduction of their WAVE concept. At the time, it was going to change how email and social media is used by business and consumers. The article I wrote titled: Is your PR  Marketing Strategy ready for the next “WAVE” was written in May 2009. Today, Google announced it was canceling the program by the end of this year.

Seems that even the people with all the money just can’t demand to change things if people are not willing to accept it. A lesson I hope was learned by Google. So what then happens to all these followers who jumped in? They will just have to go back to the old fashioned email programs that they have been using for the last 15 years.

So if you are a pr marketing person, or a pr client who thought this would change how we communicate, dust off that old email account and get back to business.

Is email dead, or has social media taken over?

Is email part of you PR Marketing Strategy, or do you only use Social Media?

There have been a lot of discussions about the future and what role email will be playing. Some people, even the COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, thinks email is on its way out and people will rely on social media to communicate. This could be possible, but not in any near future. I doubt in my lifetime this will happen. As some writers said, like Chris Crum at WebPro News, all (most of them) social media requires an email to subscribe, or become a member. So that doesn’t sound like the system of social networks has or is ready to abolish email as the means to communicate.email and social networking

We can only wait and see what new methods of communication develop over the next decade. Who knows, we may soon just think our thoughts and send them through brain waves. “Beam me up Scotty!”

Ok, enough said. This now brings me to the second part of this blog. How involved are your PR Clients with social media? Do you have a plan? Do you have a campaign in place? Writing one blog, or using twitter once or twice a week is not getting involved in social media. Social media can become a powerful marketing tool for any pr marketing strategy. If and when done correctly, results can be very positive. If you need to refresher course, just refer to some of my blogs that discuss “How to Use Linkedin to Increase Traffic“, or “Learn How to Use Social Media for PR Clients“. Or just click on the archive files to see many other related topics.

When you are ready to begin and implement a campaign, then give George Carson a call at 949-477-9400. It’s the social thing to do!

Why you need a Business Blog Site

Blogging is still one of the most required media when creating a social network program. PR Clients need to make sure their blogging is done on a regular basis. Business blogs are necessary and helpful. Companies can control what is said about their people, products and services and can use their business blog sites to better understand the needs of employees. When done correctly, business blogs can help pr clients target thier customers needs by “listening’ to what is said. In turn, pr clients should respond to any negative or positive comments so customers feel a connection, which builds trust.

So what is different from a business blog vs a typical blog site? blogging

This important pr marketing tool helps you to communicate more effectively to customers and potential customers as well. Last year in April, a blog I wrote listed of a few companies’ that have business blogs. These will give you an idea of how other company’s use blogging to improve their position and image:

Gizmodo

Google Blog

Loosetooth.com Shop Blog

 If you need more reasons why a business blog can improve your company’s position and image, give George Carson a call at 949-477-9400. It could be the best call you make this year!

Tips to optimize your web site for top SEO ranking

 

With the new battle among Google, Yahoo, and Bing to become the “choice search engine” by users, it is important to keep your pr marketing strategies current. That means knowing how SEO’s are finding your site to give it a ranking position in their index. Keywords are very important, and keeping the content fresh is also key to a successful web site.optimization web site

 

These tips below to optimize your site are used by professional web marketing companies and should be added to your pr marketing strategy as an on-going program. Just optimizing your site once a year, or every 6 months can cause your site to loose its page ranking. Why? Because your competitors are more aggressive today than ever before to keep their company in front of potential customers. If you do only the minimum web marketing for your site, then do not expect customers to find you. Or to see your site listed on the first page of any search engine.

 

Let’s look at a few pr marketing strategies for web site optimization.

 

1- KEYWORDS. You need to do more than add a few keywords to your web site html. You need to research which keywords are most often used by your customers. Don’t guess, or use what YOU think are the best keywords, use an analyzer tool, or contact a professional.

 

2- FRESH CONTENT. Keep the web site fresh with new information on a regular basis. Do this every 3 months. It isn’t necessary to change every page of text. Have your blog be part of your site, and add a link to your Twitter account.

 

3- USE LOCAL TERMS/WORDS. Not all businesses are nationwide. Even if you are a national company, be local with your site. Use words that relate to location. Such as “local publicity in Orange County”, or “full service advertising in Santa Ana, CA”.

 

4- DISCUSS YOUR INVENTORY. If you have a cosmetic or beauty store, mention what new items, or clearance products you have. That will help your visitors and those surfing for products know your inventory.

 

These are just a few tips to optimize your site to get better ranking and positioning with the search engines. For more in-depth, professional help contact George Carson at Carson Marketing, Inc. at 949-477-9400.

How Bing and Google can get your website listed on page one

Social media has become a staple in the world of communication. The proof is the new battle between Bing, and Google who both recently announced deals withsearch engines bing and google Twitter and Facebook. So how does this affect your web site? A lot, and in a positive way! This shows that SEO and social media are partners in your pr marketing strategies success. Be sure your public relations campaign includes these updates.

Since both SEO’s like content, and a lot of it, then your Twitter and Facebook can become major sources to be recognized by these SEO’s. But remember as I mentioned in my recent posts about Twitter, you need to have good content in those limited words. Don’t make sales pitches, give content.

Use keywords in your tweets and Facebook sites. And important are the links you use in the content. One tip, don’t have your feeds cross back and forth from your tweets and Facebook, turn it off, if the messages are the same on both. This may affect Bing from picking up your feeds if the are the same. Make them each unique, and you are good to go.

This is just another change in the war of search engines struggling to become the choice of consumers. Keeping informed of these types of changes is a full time job. So keep following this blog and we will do our best to help you be current so that your public relations campaign and pr marketing strategy is a success

Does your company have Internet presence?

You can no longer depend on the traditional methods alone to market your products or services. To have a web site is a move in the right direction. The site alone cannot be your only window into the world of the Internet. Your PR Marketing Strategy needs to include updates to your site, as well as a host of different social networking programs. Why you ask? Well, first of all, if you are asking that question, then your light years behind your competition and need to quickly contact a professional pr marketing person, or local orange county publicity pro to get your company noticed.

Hey, if you think this is just marketing bull, then you need to read a recent article in B-to-B magazine about the top Fortune 500 C-Level execs using the Internet. They are not asking their employees to do the work; these C-Level execs are doing it pr marketing, web marketing, social networkingthemselves. The research done by Google reveals that eighty-three percent of C-Level execs use the Internet on a daily basis. These are companies doing over $1 billion in sales! What are they doing when surfing? According to the research, 64% of these execs are locating business information everyday. Maybe now you can begin to see how important it is to have an updated, professional web site. These top-level execs could be looking for information about your company. Is your web site or social networking campaign current? If you still think this is a lot of hot air, then you are definitely missing an opportunity to increase sales.

Here is another great bit of information. 1 in 5 of these executives prefer to see videos on the companies they research to reading text. That shows you it is time to include podcasts, or YouTube videos with your site and social networking. So what are you waiting for? It isn’t too late to get a powerful pr marketing strategy together, if you have the right pr team. If you need help, then give George Carson at Carson Marketing, Inc a call. If you choose to do nothing, it could be your company that soon appears in the “auction sales” listings.

Is your PR Marketing Strategy ready for the next “WAVE”?

As I said just a few weeks ago, the way we communicate today (a few weeks ago) may change soon. If you haven’t already heard, Google is introducing the next generation of how we use email. It’s called Google WAVE. It’s time to get your pr marketing strategy campaign ready for a new form of communicating to customers, and internal meetings.google wave

Google’s design team who developed the Google Map, are the lead developers of this unique program. It is difficult to explain how the WAVE works in this short blog, so be sure to check it out. But here are just a few of the highlights.

WAVE has incorporated all the other forms of communicating, which are Instant Messaging, Twitter, eMail, and even integrating what I believe is their version of video conferencing. The main point about Google WAVE is how it works instantly. Uploading pictures is instant. Typing your message is instant, by character. Unlike Instant Messaging, you wait until the person types before you see their message; WAVE shows each character typed immediately! This 2-year in the making program will be available by the end of the year. You can see the demo video; it is over an hour long, to better understand all the great features.

And like a videoconference, you can have several people on your WAVE at once. And the wildest part, each person can comment, INSTANTLY! It is like talking to each other, or a group of people at once. If you want to send a private message so all the others cannot see, there are “private” buttons to use. Now the other neat part. You can have your WAVE be part of your Blog or Twitter. Yes, they are incorporating this instant emailing into social media. You can access your WAVE on your iPhone, or other PDA devices. Are you seeing the benefits for PR Clients, or how to further your publicity campaign?

Google went further and made this program easy to use, easy to organize and very easy to place attachments into your WAVE. The program has a unique spell checker. It uses a database that Google created and corrects the spelling and compares it to how it is used to make sure the proper word is chosen. Want more? Yeah, there is a lot more. For example, you can add links to web sites real easy. You can “go back” to see the conversation, or…well you need to view the video to see what I mean.

So, is your pr marketing strategy going to use WAVE? If after all my short descriptions of these great features you can’t see the benefits, then you are way behind. All I can say is you better look back once in a while, or you might get hit from the next WAVE!

Improve Your PR Marketing Strategy With Google’s New Tool

It’s great to see when competition helps to change the Internet landscape. Since Twitter became an overnight smash, the big SEO’s like Google, and Yahoo are now learning their “searches” need to be more targeted. This is good news when developing pr marketing strategies, or a marketing and advertising plan. Have you checked out some of the new features that Google has added? If not, it is worth it.

Basically, you can now get more indepth info rather than surfing hundreds of  web pages. The new feature, listed near the top and next to the word “Web” is called Options.marketing strategy This neat feature will give you more options for your search. Such as, videos, forums, results in the past 24 hours, or up to a year ago. Then there is the wonder wheel. This is a circle with spokes that give you further areas to review and develop your pr marketing strategy. Let’s say you type the word “encryption”. With the Wonder Wheel, it gives you options that read: encryption samples, history of encryption, java encryption, and several others. If you don’t want all of these “options” you can click “hide options” and it brings you back to the normal Google search of web sites.

A writer pointed out that even Facebook is looking to Twitter to see how they can improve their pages to be more real time and usable. A WebProNews Blog Partner, Bill Hartz, commented “From what I am seeing, the ‘search engine optimization’ industry is actually turning back around to what it used to be: good old fashioned website marketing.” This again is good news. Search was getting confusing, because the way you received results was ovewhelming. Now the SEO’s are answering our needs, finally.

I have said this in past blogs, we are just starting to open the door of the Internet Future. Who knows what we will be saying and using in the next 12 months. I don’t know about you, but I sure am looking forward to this new passage.

Which PR Marketing Strategy is best– eMail or Direct Mail?

If you guessed eMail, you’re wrong, well, almost wrong. Email has become very popular because it is easy to create, and costs a lot less than traditional direct mail. But are you sacrificing cost for conversions? Are you willing to listen, or be open minded to the fact that your pr marketing strategy should now include direct mail?

Let me explain what has been happening between these two pr marketing strategies that has direct mail the winner at this time.

You need to realize the average person receives thousands of junk email a month, and some may get that much a week. Then consider how many hundreds of email you get from vendors you know, clients, newsletters you subscribe to, etc. Although once anemail marketing pr marketing strategy important pr marketing strategy, email is now getting numb to the receiver. Our inbox has become so full with emails that we are now trashing things that are not directly needed at the time.  A well-known professor, Andrew Razeghi wrote a book called “The Riddle…” and explains it is time to be creative with your marketing strategies. In his words, Mr. Razeghi said, “direct mail is more physical, less disposable and more sensory than digital media (email).” This alone should tell you why direct mail is clearly becoming the winner.

I am not saying to abort all email campaigns, but to re-consider the safe and true value that direct mail has, and it has a higher return rate. That’s because customers are often skeptical and more so when the economy is in a recession like now. By keeping a tangible image with something for the customer to touch, gives a positive perception of a company. With email, it is difficult for the person to get that feeling, especially if they can easily “click” your message into the trash without opening it. Another point, we hate getting bills in the mail. So it has been known that consumers will open a direct mailer because it is not a bill, or something that could be negative. Basically, we want to be entertained and junk mail can help relieve the fear of another bill.

Want to know some of the secrets to a successful direct mail program? Give George Carson a call at 949-477-9400.